Geb Le Maudit (translated as Geb the Cursed) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toulouse. Coming from a graffiti background, he expanded progressively to tattoo and dark arts. Inspired by the esthetism of funeral art, dark romantism or illustrations by Gustave Dore, Geb Le Maudit impressively mixes dark macabre elements which repel and at the same time entice the observer.
Stepping inside his studio, you are greeted by a Grim Reaper on the wall and surrounded with a cabinet of curiosities featuring vanitas, taxidermy animals like a stuffed sparrow and other religious symbols and iconography.
A master of tenebrism, also called chiaroscuro, Geb Le Maudit shows an incredible ability to paint light while using only shades of grey and black with blue to brown nuances.
His characters are depicted within a fog, an eerie scenery, often ornated with poppies, symbol of eternal sleep.
For the Belgian Metal Band Amenra, the prolific artist designed a limited version of the cover artwork.
Juxtaposing symbols from religious beliefs and folklore, Geb also paints on found human bones and sculpts its bespoke frames to create surrealist dark artworks both evocative and timeless. Symbols are in effect, the mediator, presence, and real (or intelligible) representation of the holy in certain conventional forms.
Geb Le Maudit’s creations are both hypnotic and riveting. They tap into an inner consciousness and push us to examine our feelings and relationship with death and the inbetween worlds, the transition or the ‘passage’, hence the presence of psychopomps through various forms.
Find out more on https://www.instagram.com/geb_lemaudit/
Pictures @butterflyartnews and courtesy of the artist